About LACI – Cog

About 900,000 people in the UK have dementia, and another 1.5 million have mild memory problems. One type of dementia, called vascular dementia due to damaged blood vessels, is the second most common. Right now, there’s no cure or way to stop it, but scientists are starting to find medicines that might help.

We’re planning a study called LACI-Cog, which stands for Lacunar Intervention Trial – Cognition. It will involve 300 people from 20 places across the UK. The study will test two medicines that were already used in an earlier study in stroke patients. These medicines are called isosorbide mononitrate and cilostazol. They’re already used in the NHS to treat heart problems and seem to be safe with few side effects. The earlier study showed they might help with memory and everyday tasks.

But these medicines haven’t been tested yet in people who have memory problems caused by damaged blood vessels in the brain.

In LACI-Cog, we’ll invite adults with early or mild memory problems from damaged blood vessels to take part. These people will be chosen from memory clinics around the UK. Everyone who joins must be able to understand the study and agree to take part.

Here’s what will happen:

• Each person will do memory and thinking tests and answer questions about their health. 

• If they haven’t had a brain scan recently, they might be offered one (it takes about 30 minutes). 

• They might also give a small blood sample to help researchers learn more about brain diseases. 

• Then, they’ll be randomly put into one of four groups: 

1. 1. Group 1 gets isosorbide mononitrate 

1. 1. Group 2 gets cilostazol 

1. 1. Group 3 gets both medicines 

1. 1. Group 4 gets a placebo (a fake pill that doesn’t do anything) or no pill if a placebo isn’t available 

Everyone will also be offered advice on healthy habits, like managing blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. 

After starting the medicine, the study team will call participants in the first couple of weeks to check how they’re doing and if they have any side effects. They’ll also call at 5 months and 9 months to see how things are going. Participants will be able to call the research team at any time in between if there are any problems.

At the end of the study (after 9 months), participants might: 

• Get another brain scan 

• Do more memory and thinking tests 

• Have a family member answer questions about how they’re doing (if the participant agrees) 

• They will then gradually stop taking the medicine and the study will finish 

People in the study will get updates through newsletters so they know what the researchers are finding out.